Theological term
Forgiveness
5 sermons · All terms
God's Unconditional Forgiveness: A Promise for ALL
The parable of the prodigal son proclaims that God's forgiveness is unconditional and extends to every category of sinner without exception. No depth of moral failure, addiction, or shame places a person beyond the reach of divine mercy. The sermon presses home that repentance — however hesitant — is met not with rejection but with restoration, and calls every hearer to turn from sin and trust the Savior who washes and purifies.
Ask FGBC #23: Can you forgive someone who has not apologized or asked for forgiveness
Can a Christian forgive someone who has never apologized or asked for forgiveness? Drawing on Mark 11:25 and the pattern of divine deliverance in Judges 13, the answer is yes — there is biblical warrant for unilateral forgiveness, and the alternative is bitterness, which is both spiritually harmful and sinful. An important distinction is pressed between interpersonal forgiveness, which Christians are called to extend regardless of the offender's response, and civic justice, which makes its own legitimate demands: forgiving a criminal does not suspend the civil magistrate's obligation to punish crime.
When The Rooster Crows
Peter's three denials of Christ in Mark 14:66–72 expose the depth of the fear of man lodged in every human heart — a fear so strong that one of the Lord's closest disciples crumbled before a servant girl's accusation. The sermon traces the two stages of Peter's denial against the backdrop of Christ's own bold confession before the Sanhedrin, pressing the contrast between the Lord's fidelity and the disciple's cowardice. Yet the controlling note is not condemnation but grace: the risen Christ's two-word restoration in Mark 16:7 — 'and Peter' — demonstrates that denial is not the unforgivable sin, and that God forgives the tears of his people as readily as their formal confessions. Believers are urged to pray now, while things are well, for the strength to stand under pressure, and to marvel at the sovereign mercy that forgives what no man would.
Thanksgiving for the Mercy of God
Psalm 103 calls the redeemed sinner to bless God with the totality of his being, and to resist the ingrained tendency to forget the Lord's benefits. This expository sermon works through the psalm's three movements: David's self-directed reminder to bless God (vv. 1–2), the reasons that fuel that blessing — the gifts received, their recipients, and above all the character of the Giver whose mercy is infinite, thorough, tender, and enduring (vv. 3–18) — and the recognition of God's sovereign kingdom that widens the summons to bless into a universal chorus (vv. 19–22). The sermon closes with five applications showing that thanksgiving is not an annual posture but the daily disposition of every soul that has tasted the mercy of God in the gospel of Jesus Christ.
The Parable of the Unforgiving Servant
Peter's question about the limits of forgiveness — 'up to seven times?' — draws from Christ the parable of a servant forgiven an astronomically unpayable debt who then seizes a fellow servant over a trifling sum. This sermon works through Matthew 18:21–35 in three movements: the setting of Peter's question, the three scenes of the parable itself, and the concluding verdict of verse 35. The central argument is that the forgiven community must be a forgiving community — not by counting to 490, but by forgiving without counting — and that a professing Christian who withholds forgiveness from a repentant brother thereby gives evidence that he himself has never truly received the grace of God.